546 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 43. 



in geography on the part of the British 

 public, but they are probably to be looked 

 upon as an indirect result of the Geographi- 

 cal Congress held in London in the begin- 

 ning of August which, with its surfeit of 

 of papers and discussions by the leading 

 geographers of the world, was naturally 

 enough felt by many geogi-aphers as suffi- 

 cient for the year. 



Section E met on four days, and on the 

 average five papers were read each day, 

 many of them being illustrated by the lan- 

 tern. The proceedings were opened by an 

 address in which Mr. H. J. Mackinder, 

 reader in geography at the Universitj^ of 

 Oxford, as president of the Section, brought 

 the intellectual value of geography in edu- 

 cation into prominence. The address com- 

 menced with a comprehensive summary of 

 the growth of modern geographical ideas 

 from the Middle Ages down to the time 

 when the labors of Ritter and Peschel made 

 geography a modern science, and prepared 

 the waj' for the university recognition of 

 the subject which is now practically univer- 

 sal in Germany, though unknown in Britain. 

 The geographical argument he sketched as 

 forming a book of three chapters — geomor- 

 phologj', geophysiology (comprising ocean- 

 ography and climatology) and biogeog- 

 raphy, with a supplement to the whole in 

 the form of the history of geography. 



The address embodied the practical sug- 

 gestion that a centralized school of geog- 

 raphy, guided by geographical and educa- 

 tional experts, should be established in Lon- 

 don, under the immediate inspiration of the 

 Royal Geographical Society. The conclud- 

 ing words express in a sentence the truth 

 which volumes of ai-gUment seem powerless 

 to impress upon university authorities: 



"The geographical is a distinct stand- 

 point from which to view, to analyze and 

 to group the facts of existence, and as such 

 entitled to rank with the theological or 

 philosophical, the linguistic, the mathemat- 



ical, the phj'sical and the historical stand- 

 points." 



The General Committee of the Associa- 

 tion veiy appropriately appointed a com- 

 mittee with Mr. Mackinder as chairman 

 and Mr. Herbertson, lecturer on geography 

 at Owens College, Manchester, as secretary, 

 to investigate and report upon geographical 

 teaching in the United Kingdom. 



Excellent papers on exploration were read 

 by Mr. G. F. Scott Elliott on a journey to 

 Ruwenzoir, by Cajptain Hinde on the Congo 

 State, by Mr. Myers on Caria in Asia Minor, 

 by Mr. Borchgrevink on the Antarctic re- 

 gions, and for Mr. Bent on southern Arabia; 

 but the facts treated of had already been 

 made public. 



New results in travel were communicated 

 by Mr. H. S. Cowper, who had made an in- 

 teresting journey through Tarhuna and 

 Gharian, in Tripoli, in bi'inging home photo- 

 graphs of many important sites previously 

 little known, and by the Rev. W. Weston 

 on the Japanese Alps, with an account of 

 the curious rites practiced by the Japanese 

 pilgrims on their visits to the mountain 

 shrines. 



Lengthened experience of a little-known 

 land enabled Mr. John Dodd to give a 

 paper of very high geographical value on 

 Formosa, an island which he probably 

 knows better than any other European, on 

 account of his long residence there and 

 his trading journeys among the aborigines 

 of the interior. Dr. A. Markoff gave an 

 account, from Russian official sources, of 

 the conditions of the Asiatic dominions of 

 that empire, and the probable effects of the 

 completion of the trans-Siberian railway 

 now in course of construction. 



Mr. Montefiore, secretary'of the Jackson- 

 Harmsworth Arctic expedition, reported 

 the return of the yacht ' Windward ' from 

 Fi'anz-Josef Land, where she had wintered 

 after landing Mr. Jackson and his party. 

 Mr. Jackson started for his journe}' toward 



